Posts by BitDr

Page:

Re: Hmm...

Re: Another nail in the coffin...

The posted maximum is generally set far too low. It should indicate the maximum safe speed at which the roadway can be traversed under ideal conditions, whereas it would be more appropriate to describe existing speed limits as the maximum safe speed the roadway can be traversed in an ox cart with wobbly wooden wheels in dire need of maintenance.

It saddens me..

The "leaders" today should be ashamed of themselves. It saddens me to think of all of the young me who died fighting a war against the worst example of a socialist police state in thew 1940's. Watching historical footage of the celebration of VE day those happy people had no idea their sacrifice ane the ultimate sacrifice of their loved ones was only to delay the onset of that which they fought against.

Eternal vigilance must be maintained against those who peddle safety in lieu of liberty, it is and always will be the price of freedom.

Re: Not Necessarily

Re: This is a very poor article.

There seems to be a slight uptick in vague articles about scary exploits in Linux; enough so that I'm beginning to wonder how (or why) they get past the editors. These kinds of "stories" smack of scare tactics that would be more at home in a FUD marketing campaign than in an IT news publication read by professionals & enthusiasts.

Re: Wow..... just look at all the hate.

The trouble is that it's not the fans of the WIndows OS that are doing the work, it's Microsoft.

The Windows OS can't be rebuilt by it's fans to run on new or unusual hardware because the fans don't have access to the source, making it impossible for them to perform the task. If they had the source then they would also be in violation of the EULA, which is a whole other problem for them.

I like it...

Applications abound, but I (and people like me) have to be able to develop on our platform of choice. It also has to be secure, imagine graffiti (or worse) popping into your holographic-space. I can think of loads of uses for this, but it needs independence from the Internet and any particular O/S. It has to be able to work with everything or it will fail. If a design shop runs Macs and wants to write software to display it's UI, or a part of it's UI in this device then it should be doable. Same for the *nix Operating Systems. It can't be Internet dependent, but its nature necessitates network dependence, which can be exclusive of the Internet.

I like it! Well done! Now, lets see if the business-types at MS screw it up... my gut tells me they will be greedy and try to tie it to their ecosystem to monetize the crap out of it. This will result in the Zune-effect taking hold and the product dying before it gets any real traction.

Samsung...

I was looking at Samsung, nice devices, but with one niggly little design oversight that drove me crazy while I used it. The back button is on the right side of the device, which is fine for languages that read right to left, but my native toung reads from left to right, and when I turn back a page I turn back from the left side. It doesn't seem like much, but it is an oversight that keeps me from buying one of their otherwise lovely devices.

Re: Security / Trustworthy Computing

Trustworthy computing was never intended to benefit you, it was for them! They could trust that the version of windows was not stolen.. and you thought that it meant that you could trust the OS? Kind of like UEFI and secure boot, it's not for you really, it's for them.

Re: hmmm...

Yeah.. everyone EXCEPT the slime-ball criminals is affected by their misguided efforts. The goodie-goodie-nambie-pamby-left-leaning-social-engineering-think-of-the-children idiots don't understand is that criminals by definition do not obey the law. They also have a problem with scope... as in the Internet is global and good-luck applying your nation's laws to someone in a country on the other side of the planet, perhaps in the opposite hemisphere.

Re: If only..

I don't understand the down votes on this one. A fuel cell in conjunction with super capacitors or batteries (preferably the former) is a good solution. H2 storage is problematic but the biggest problem is the stigma created by the Hindenburg disaster. If the Titanic had that kind of power over ships there would be no cruise-ship vacations. That meme is much more difficult to overcome than anything else.

On another note, electric motors are not engines. The lump under the bonnet is not a motor it is an engine. What's the difference? A motor converts one form of energy directly into another (electrical to mechanical), an engine has one extra step. It employs a chemical process to liberate energy from a fuel and then converts that energy into another form. Or think of it this way, an engine powers a motor, a motor can not power an engine.

Batteries and fuel cells are engines, a super capacitor is a storage vessel, like a high-pressure gas-cylinder or a tightly wound spring.

Unused CPU cycle myth

The financial types need a swift kick in the arse. My servers idling in my business cost me only the electricity to run them and occasional hardware maintenance (replace a drive in a RAID, etc.). For a 4GHZ Multi-core/Multi-CPU server (be creative) costing 100,000.00 [insert your currency here] the first minute of up-time sees each second cost .0000004 [insert your currency here] per cycle. As time passes that number gets lower!

Re: Why?

Starting THOUSANDS of VMs? For who? If you're talking computing as a service then forget about it. Why the heck would rely on someone else and get in the blame-throwing game when problems inevitably arise? My servers, my VMs, My Data, My Business. When you work for me your VM it is spun up 24/7/365 with backup servers at the ready should things go south.

Re: Hasn't this happened already with Upstart?

Now John this

"So just use syslog, like the default Debian install of systemd does."

is condescending, and ill-deserved. It's like telling a pilot who wants to go to the moon to "just build a rocket and go like NASA did". Sys admins and businesses are looking at spending time and money figuring out how to undo Mr. Pottering's good intentions, why is that? If systemd was truly a drop-in (transparent) replacement it would cause no angst (although I'm sure SOMEONE would complain).

However, now that the deed is done it's all going to come down to money, the question is whose going to get that money? Will I absorb the cost to change everything and allow systemd to infiltrate my servers going forward, or should I freeze everything where it is and put resources into an alternative distro like Devuan. I have to ask: "Does systemd brings any tangible or financial benefit to my server environment and business operation"? So far the answer is "no".

Perhaps systemd can improve desktop PC boot-time, but so can using an SSD, which truly IS a drop-in replacement; but even THAT no longer matters as many desktops here are virtual and up 24/7/365 (except the Windows VMs, they seem to need rebooting to remain stable).

Keeping on track with who gets the money, GNOME 3 is out, as is Windows 8 and the future Windows 10. Our users liked Gnome 2.x and it worked well, so Mate gets our support (yes financially) as does Windows 7 (but far less-so). We don't encourage Windows because with the exception of a certain nameless accounting package (that we're working to replace), it really is irrelevant and just increases costs.

We were set to start sending funds to CentOS but their implementation of BIOSDEVNAME and subsequent gushing about now being officially aligned with RH caused us to re-evaluate their strategic direction. It's not looking good for CentOS in our shop, although that too is subject to change.

In real-estate it's all about location, in system administration & business I.T. it's all about stability. We are always looking to improve things, but we need to do it in a sane manner. It's evolution vs revolution. If you change something critical, no matter how well-intentioned the change, you must QA & regression test it before releasing it. It has GOT to be ROCK solid, well documented, and transparent in it's use & maintenance. Miss ANY of these and you had best go back to the drawing-board.

Uptime and the false need for a quicker boot...

My desktop runs 24/7/365, as do my servers. The desktop is a Fedora 14 box which does everything except NetFlix. As of late (the last 6 months or so) I've been using a VM more and more. Eventually, my desktop will be a VM hosted on the more powerful of the two servers. The beast-under-the-desk will get replaced by a SFF thin-client terminal device.

The laptop gets no use, but the netbook (an Aspire One) runs Fedora 14 and boots from an SSD in under 30 seconds, no need for anything faster. A tablet is the computer-on-the-road, and it's boot time is abysmal compared to everything else in the stable.

So, for faster boots, use an SSD and keep your home partition on spinning rust (preferably a RAID).

Re: Off to a bad start

@ John Sanders

I think the question being asked is "why". Why are binary logs a requirement? What's the driver? Logs are for people to read and understand so they can work with the data. Binary is not user friendly, text is. If the need is for machine readable logs then use XML (and no sneaking in binary objects while we're not looking!).

Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean that it SHOULD be done. My instinct tells me to run in the opposite direction of any distro using systemd, the more I learn about it the more I see it as a single point of failure, and a huge mass of spaghetti. The siren call of BSD is getting stronger by the day.

Re: Whatever.

Re: Pottering just doesn't get it.

We can pretty much all agree that server environments really don't benefit from a quicker boot time simply because they are rarely rebooted.

Given that the above is true, and given that systemd is being pushed by server vendor we can say that the actual purpose systemd is NOT because we need faster boot times.

Given that systemd is beginning to control almost everything, and holds forward that it makes life easier to tweak when it comes to services. I postulate that the real purpose of systemd is to grab GNU/LINUX by the throat and dictate terms to any and all who use it.

Re: Still don't get it...

OK, someone who does not want to have their device controlled by the manufacturer NEEDS to root it. But you're talking about preference, so you prefer to be controlled and in the walled garden. Fine. However to your point of defining need as opposed to preference, lets say you have a nexus one, it's getting low on RAM, everything you have installed on it are tools you use daily. Wait a minute, there's YouTube sucking up a few MB, and FaceBook standing guard over another few MB. They can't be moved to the SD memory and you can use the websites... no app needed... but they also can't be uninstalled! Hmmm, you can't afford a new phone, but you heard a buddy talking about how he rooted his phone and installed some neat apps; he also said something about "freeing up memory". So you get in touch with him and root your phone to eliminate the craplettes. Now you have more memory and don't need to find a few hundred [insert your currency here] for a new device, or get locked into a contract by getting a "free" upgrade.

There.. a case where someone could NEED to root their phone. That their privacy is enhanced is a side benefit.

Loads of Permissions

Agreed, too many apps want access to everything on your device, those do not get installed on mine. A really good example is my bank's app. It wants access to everything but I can use their web-site without that kind of privacy invasion.

Rooting != Intelligent_User

The average user, having seen some neat things that can be done with a rooted device, only needs to know someone who can root their device for them. They were probably cautioned at the time it was done, but all they heard was "blah-blah-blah be careful yadda yadda" .

Interesting thing...

Laws change (albeit slowly), therefore "the rule of law" of any given nation is subject to the culture of the nation's government at any given point in time.

Rights trump the law, governments and law-enforcement ignore this at their peril because history shows that it will eventually bite them on the behind.

Many atrocities have been comitted within the rule of law.

Unlike a law, a right can not be taken-away, oddly enough IMHO neither can they be granted (although they can be taken for granted). Priviliges are granted, rights are not. For example no one has the right to subjugate another, but everyone has the right to place themselves in subjugation. This brings up the interesting question of how to maintain subjugation of someone once they have placed themselves in that position, because there is no right to do this. That would be a contract.

I used subjugate in the above example because of the image it conjures up, We're not talking enslavement, that is the extreme; we're talking about turning over control, piecemeal-like, of your daily existence-activities into the hands of others. The treatise-length (which this post is in danger of becoming) EULAs are good examples.

Encryption of personal information is keeping that information under your control, that's why it is called "personal" information. If it was written down on paper and stored in a safe in your house the law-enforcement agencies would not be able to go to the mortgage holder (which might be you), demand a key to your home, contact the maker of the safe, demand a master-combination/key, drive to your domicile, and search the premises at any time they pleased, for any reason they can think of.

Law enforcement is the immune-system of civilization, if it becomes cancerous it can kill both itself and the body in which it lives.

I, as many others, use what just works. Developments of the last few years (systemd, wayland, touch GUIs for the desktop, predictable device names, etc.) have me considering moving away from Linux to BSD.

Re: Service Call.

With many businesses there is no way to actually register a complaint. If means to do so is given it is usually email and the canned response you eventually receive makes it obvious that no one actually read and understood your attempt to communicate. Businesses today only want to sell product, sign you up for a subscription, and most offer only email as a means of contact. There is a feeling of general apathy when it comes to customer service.

I recently posted a query to an ISP about their high speed wireless business services (4G/LTE) for rural businesses. asking if they had plans for a more symetrical Upload/Download service as I might become a customer if they did. I explained that their service of 10MB/s down and 1MB/s up was not conducive to running a business that uses VOIP phones, hosts their own email server, and their own colloboration tools, allows staff t remote into their desktop from the field, and remotley admins customer's servers.

I got a message back from their support staff saying they couldn't discuss this kind of thing in email and that they would be happy to look into my account and resolve my issues if I would just call them.

Re: Veredict: skip

This;

"allow a common codebase on the different devices, with an adaptive UI that can change on the fly from 'phone in my pocket with finger friendly controls' to 'desktop computer UI with more mouse and keyboard oriented controls'. "

is a noble goal, and one which I find myself in happy agreement with, however requiring the computing device to connect to the Internet in order to supply SAAS or OSAAS is utterly distasteful eg. you can then be held hostage by those who have taken over the Internet pipes.

So, a UI that works well as a touch UI, and doesn't change too much when it becomes keyboard centric, and a computing device that can use multiple displays as it sees fit (provided it is authorised on them). Hmmm.. Just as an aside, I recently started using a Blue Tooth mouse on my XOOM when I am at the office (already had a keyboard), and was surprised at how good it all worked. Just had to remember not to double click on an icon to start an app. But Mouse wheel scrolls through the different "desktops", or through the apps when viewing them. Everything works as expected.

Re: The fixation with 'serarch' for everything

Thats it for them then...

I've migrated my default search engine on all platforms to one that does not track their users. My GMail is a shell account used for nothing relevant (i.e. a spam trap for companies who ask me for my email (if I give it to them)), and I don't use Google Hangouts. Is placing people in an information bubble quasi-equivalent to a feedback loop? i.e. You see what you're interested in and only what is relevant.

Re: Jobs was a genius

I've got a 52" LG DLP that is a truly wonderful unit, even if it is 8 years old. The picture is sharp, the colours are vibrant and sound is excellent. I would buy another DLP in a heartbeat (if I could). The lamp in this one has been replaced twice (4 years use per bulb) , and I have one more spare.

Cable company and teleco owns infrastructure, teleco also owns content creation, these guys are pushing for different pricing for data delivery based on the KIND of data (as if the ones and zeros were somehow different). If they succeed then they are essentially in a position to strangle competition as they own the pipes.

"The default Fedora install CD still installs the GNOME Shell, though there is now, helpfully, a series of animated tutorials to help you get a handle on the counter-intuitive interface that is GNOME 3."

"counter-intuitive interface" is exactly what a GUI is NOT supposed to be.

Good spin...

The entire strategy appeared to be one of phasing out physical media while, during transition, locking existing physical media to their servers.

"You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc," Mattrick said.

"The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world."

Really? That is pretty good spin they put on the tsunami of negativity that came their way.

Re: They're both full of $#!T

In town driving uses the most energy, so taking a two mile trip in down town Manhattan might sound innocent enough, but if you're stuck in stop-and-go in traffic for an hour with the heater going it is going to put a severe dent in your battery capacity.

During an auto show (about 20 years ago) I spoke with a fellow who was promoting electric conversions or some such. His enthusiasm was all well and good, but when asked how the vehicle would perform (range-wise) on a cold Canadian evening (-15C) with heater, headlights, drive-motors, windscreen wipers, marker lights etc. all needing power, subsided slightly. A simple solution to the demands made on the batteries for cabin heat would be to use something other than electric power... perhaps resurrect the old VW gas-heaters (modified for Propane or Natural Gas).

Another point from the story. The Journo says that Tesla put the wrong size tires on the vehicle. Was he trying to imply that this might be the cause for the discrepency in the logged speed and what he said he did? Wouldn't the car record what it is displaying on the instruments?

Three words for MS

Corel Word Perfect

MS allegedly screwed Corel when they were trying to port Word Perfect to Windows 98, not a nice feeling is it MS? Of course nothing has been proven in either instance, it's all allegations and such, but eventually things will work out, and perhaps the phrase "reap what you sow" will become associated with one of the two.

Greedy troll... stupid USPTO

Re: "Quit spreading FUD!" says the chorus of astroturfers.

The ignorance of the consumer is being used to control/ensnare them, walls are being built around them and they can't see it because they see most geeks as frothing-at-the-mouth zealots who talk down to them, usually in tongues they don't understand. Meanwhile the Redmonds of the world offer a glib smile, a warm handshake, a shoulder to lean on, and some nice hot coco just before leading them to their newly-decorated cell and locking them inside.

The man with the smile and handshake will win every time over the rude zealot, he knows this, and he knows that just calling something "security feature" will help him immensely; especially if he controls it and requires it be enabled and others require it disabled. The psychology at work here is more important to the Redomnds of this world than any actual security provided; that lock in can be attained at some future date is just icing on the cake, that hardware manufacturers might have to bend to your will is cherries on the icing.